


Tell Her

by Swan_Secrets



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Illnesses, Swan Queen Week, Swan Queen Week Summer 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 12:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7757455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swan_Secrets/pseuds/Swan_Secrets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long and wonderful reign Queen Regina is dying. There's one regret she's never been able to forget, but even in the darkest moments there can be hope.</p><p>Written for the Swan Queen Week Summer 2016 Prompt: Illness</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Her

 

She landed less than gracefully on the balcony at the top of the tallest tower in the castle.

 

Cloaked in dark green with her hood up the woman went through the open doors and into the Queen's chamber.

 

It was a splendid place of simple luxury. There were no guards, they had all fled hours ago. There was only the Queen. 

 

The Queen was in bed.

 

And the Queen was dying. As she got closed to the Queen the woman in green could really feel it. Death. Decay. Darkness. There was a smell like ash and decomposing leaves.

 

The closer she got to the Queen the more sure she became that she was right.

 

It took a few minutes for Queen Regina to realise she had company.

 

Her skin was withered and almost entirely blackened, like a rotting apple. Her lips were thin, her eyes withdrawn and sad. She looked at the woman standing over her and scowled. Who would dare disturb her like this?

 

"Who are you?" Regina croaked. Her fingers twitched, there was a flicker and a wisp of smoke but she didn't have the strength to produce the fireball. Not anymore.

 

"Don't you recognise me?" She pulled down her hood, revealing her bright young face and a cascade of blonde hair.

 

Regina did. She recognised her. It was slow to come but yes, she remembered. "Tinker...Tinkerbell."

 

"That's right," Tinkerbell grinned. She could help but feel electrified by being here.

 

"But...you haven't aged."

 

Tink laughed and twirled. "I have a bit." Her smile dropped when she looked at Regina again.

 

Regina had made for a truly great Queen the second time around. In the darkest days of the land Regina had always led them back to the light, at least that had been true until now.

 

One of those dark hours had done this to her. Almost twenty years ago in a final, devastating battle Regina had defeated the Dark Ones forever. She had vanquished them never to return. But her victory had come with a grave cost. The Dark Magic had damaged her beyond repair and over time, slowly at first and now accelerating, it was eating her body and her soul.

 

There was nothing that could be done to stop it. Twenty years of trying had brought no cure. 

 

Worse still a greater threat was looming, the light was fading across the land as Regina neared the end.

 

"Why are you here?" Regina struggled to get the words out. 

 

“Because something is wrong, it’s taken me years to figure it out and now I have. This isn’t how things are meant to be. This isn’t right!” Tinkerbell realised she was letting the excitement and energy of her realisation overwhelm her. 

 

Regina looked at her, dull and hopeless. "Let me die in peace. I think I’ve earned that."

 

"You have oh you have. You've earned more than that. But it’s all wrong and you're the only one who can fix it."

 

"Go," Regina coughed. "Away!" 

 

"Something went wrong, the true path wasn’t taken. Please. Just listen. There’s a moment isn’t there? A moment you think about all the time. A choice you regret. A memory you go over and over," Tinkerbell grinned when she saw at last something other than despair in Regina's eyes. "I'm right? I’m right aren’t I? I knew it! No one listened to me but I knew it. This world is wrong Regina. It went wrong the moment you made that choice."

 

Regina felt the dark devouring her, bit by bit. Her skin was cracked, her body close to crumbling. But the memory came strong. A memory that haunted her. Through the years it had refused to fade. She had never told anyone about it.

 

Regina tried to tell Tinkerbell could only manage one word: "Emma."

 

Tinkerbell nodded. "I've been working on fixing this so long, I can’t believe it’s been you all along."

 

"Fix, how?"

 

There was a loud crack, like a window shattering but much much louder. Tinkerbell raced back to the balcony, fluttering across the room using her wings.

 

It was the sky. The sky itself was covered in cracks, and oozing through them was darkness and crackling purple lightning. The sky was falling. The end of the world was here and there was no one left to save them.

 

She returned to Regina just as quick, terror on her face. "We're out of time. I don't have long enough to explain this so you'll just need to trust me."

 

Regina nodded. She had nothing left to lose. As she did her left eye changed. It darkened and solidified, becoming crystalline. The sickness was relentless. 

 

From her cloak Tinkerbell pulled out a vial of a glowing while substance. It seemed to be swirling and sparkling in the glass. "This is the last of the fairy dust mixed with a whole bunch of other super powerful stuff.  When I drink this it will change me. When I change you need to wish, you need to focus on that moment. Focus on the memory. It's the only chance. Can you do that?"

 

"Yes," Regina whimpered. She was in so much pain she could barely focus on anything else.

 

Tinkerbell took a last glance back towards the balcony. There was another load crash and the castle shook. It was the sound of the universe being torn apart.

 

She popped the top off the vial, smiled at Regina and said "bottoms up!"

 

Tinkerbell drank the glowing white substance. It was a concentration of extremely powerful magics. She had broken every rule to make it. It had cost lives and hopes and dreams to give her one chance to put right destiny. She had no idea if doing this would change the catastrophe that was coming down around her. But it was the only hope she had to put right a wrong.

 

Tinkerbell screamed. After an instant of pain she exploded. Left behind was a shimmering green orb, almost too bright to look at. It was like a shining star had suddenly been born right there in Regina's chambers.

 

Regina wished upon that star. She fought through the fog that was creeping in her mind. Emma. That one moment. That regret.

 

While the end of everything raged Regina took hold of the tiny scrap of hope offered by the new-born star. 

 

 

*** 

 

 

Regina had made her decision.

 

Halfway to Emma's place it started to rain. Regina had decided to walk instead of drive or use magic to transport herself in hope that her nerves would calm. They hadn't. And now it was raining. Perfect. Just perfect.

 

Her nerves weren't calming. She was getting more jittery. What if Emma rejected her? Regina didn't think she could take the heartbreak. And there was Henry to think about. If Emma rejected her that would ruin their friendship and that friendship meant a great deal to him. What if she didn't reject her but they later broke up. That would be even more heart breaking and even worse for Henry.

 

Regina walked slower, the potential negative consequences of her decision were weighing on her. The rain got heavier. She was going to be soaked by the time she got there. That was a sign that this whole idea was a bad one.

 

She pushed herself to keep walking. It had taken so much to convince herself that the time had come to tell Emma how she felt about her, she knew if she turned around now that she would never work up that courage again.

 

It was now or never.

 

Over and over she went through what she wanted to say. Before she knew it she was standing across the street from Emma’s. She froze. She wasn’t ready. She had been so sure that she could do it and that now was the right time but now that she was here she couldn’t go through with it. Emma wouldn’t want her. Not in that way. How could she? Regina didn't deserve it. She wasn’t capable of finding that kind of happiness.

 

Maybe she'd regret it but she'd have to live with that.

 

 

***

 

 

For a moment Regina thought it hadn't worked. She was consumed in green light and the heat of it made her skin feel like it was burning. The burning then went deeper than skin, deep into her aching muscle and rotting bones.

 

Abruptly it was gone and she felt cold and wet.

 

It was raining.

 

Raining. 

 

She remembered it had been raining when she'd made the decision she most regretted, when she had let doubt and fear win. With her one working eye she made out the figure of her past self standing across the road from Emma's house. She was about to make the choice again. She was about to give up on loving Emma. Right now she was convincing herself to go back home.

 

The old and dying Regina was just down the street on the same side as her past self. The other Regina (had she really been so healthy and young back then?) hadn’t noticed her appear, she was too focused on her internal struggle.

 

She had to change this. She had to make that other Regina be brave and bare tell Emma what she felt. But how? How could she? What could she do to bring about that change? Regina took a shuffling step towards her younger self and the pain tore through her body like a thousand knives cutting all over. Her mouth opened in a silent cry. Even if the other Regina saw her she was more likely to be horrified than convinced to be true to her emotions.

 

She didn’t have it in her. She had nothing left. Just standing still and watching was taking all of her effort. And she could still feel it working inside her. The sickness was devouring her. Surely she only had moments until she'd be dead and all would be lost.

 

Regina managed to lift her hand but even the force of the falling rain was damaging to her fragile form. Raindrops left pits in her skin. There was a flicker of magic between her fingers but her hand crumbled into dust.

 

She'd failed, she was doomed to make the wrong choice. She and the universe were lost to their fate.

 

No.

 

She couldn't give up.

 

Her friends, the heroes she had loved, they wouldn't give in and neither would she.

 

Regina raised her other hand and with the memory of the love she had so foolishly let go of in her mind gave one last effort. 

 

 _Emma Swan, I love you!_  

 

 

***

 

Just as Regina firmly decided to go home she heard an anguished cry. 

 

"Tell her!" 

 

Regina started to turn towards the voice but suddenly there was flash above Emma's house. Regina looked and saw a rainbow, vivid in rich colours form over the house.

 

Regina didn't understand.

 

The rainbow was beautiful and breath-taking. She couldn't have asked for a better sign. The rainbow and the shout were clear.

 

Regina looked for the source of the cry but saw nothing.

 

Well nothing except...

 

She squinted there was dust swirling and falling to the ground in amongst the rain. Within seconds the dust was gone. What had it been?

 

Over the house the rainbow was fading. It was magic no doubt but how or who was a mystery.

 

_Tell her._

 

Someone somewhere was urging her not to give into fear. 

 

 _Tell her._  

 

That voice, somehow familiar.

 

_Tell her._

 

Regina took a step towards Emma's house. Then another. She was going to do it. She was going to tell Emma she was in love with her.

 

The falling rain washed away the last of the dust from a hopeless future that had been given one last chance to change fate.

 

 


End file.
